


Let's talk about On the Head of a Pin!

by MajorEnglishEsquire



Series: Supernatural Meta by MajorEnglish [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Analysis, Criticism, Episode: s04e16 On the Head of a Pin, Meta, Season/Series 04, Season/Series 05, Season/Series 08, Season/Series 09
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2014-08-25
Packaged: 2018-02-14 13:46:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2194014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MajorEnglishEsquire/pseuds/MajorEnglishEsquire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A review of information in <a href="http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=4.16_On_the_Head_of_a_Pin">04.16 On the Head of a Pin</a>, written during Season 09.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let's talk about On the Head of a Pin!

**Author's Note:**

> This is meta originally posted [here, on my fandom Tumblr](http://apocalypse-patisserie.tumblr.com/post/67486199469/lets-talk-about-on-the-head-of-a-pin). It has been modified, edited, and added to just a bit.
> 
> I did leave in some stuff at the end which no longer applies to the story concerning the angels, but which still hasn't been re-addressed on the show.

It was on while I was making breakfast and I had so many thoughts. [04.16](http://supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=4.16_On_the_Head_of_a_Pin) gets metaed to death, which isn't a bad thing, but that means you've probably all thought about this before. But sometimes I'm too lazy to read meta so...

Like, my first thought is WOW I want 04.16 Cas back! He's the Cas we talk about when we talk about how Cas isn't this weak shell that we've got in Season 09. He’s wondering, thinking, strategizing, considering disobedience, expressing more doubt than he did to Dean at the end of [04.07](http://supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=4.07_It%27s_the_Great_Pumpkin,_Sam_Winchester). Yes, Cas has changed and everything he's done and had to do and had to witness, everything he's been through, that  _should,_  logically, change him. But what we (or at least I) find intolerable is that no thread of Season 04 Cas seems to remain inside of Season 09 Cas, not even the things that are, individually, sort of inner-workings personality traits that don't ever change. (Though somehow the awkward aesthetic remains??) All people change, change is absolute, it is guaranteed to happen. But there are essentials in every person that do not change, that grow old with you. Things you pick up from genetics or from the earliest stages of your life (attachment, comfort of touch, complexes, you know, Freudian shit).

Those things are missing in Castiel. They don't get carried over because the writing is, at times, let's just face it, BAD. If it were possible that those things didn't carry over in angels, then that's one of those things the show should have mentioned or implied at some point. Because the angels care about their family, their brothers and sisters, like humans do. Maybe not exactly like humans do or with the zeal of the Winchesters, but family means something. Misha has also carried Castiel's unique the-stilted-awkward-one personality through from when he was first handed the role to shape, from when he was given the opportunity to present the angels as a race.

And as Edlund is the one who wrote both 04.16 and [05.04](http://supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=The_End), I wish the show should at least honor the spirit of consistency which Edlund wove into Castiel's character between his S04 and S05 eps. There's End!verse Cas's quick little look at OG Dean when End!verse Dean asks if Cas is going on the mission. That much-loved, much-giffed scene where it's very clear how much 2014!Cas still loves original-recipe Dean. But then there's the casual things like language. "Strange," Cas says in 04.16, "Strange how a leaky pipe can undo the work of angels..." And note how one of the first things 2014!Cas says to Dean is, "Woah, strange!" Subtle things like this make me think the intention was that, even as a human, Cas would carry over who he was in essentials. So it drives me mad that he wouldn't still be a warrior. AND DON'T FUCK WITH ME. 2014!Cas was a warrior and a strategist. He was also on amphetamines and following someone he loved (either as a friend, lover, or family) into a hopeless battle against Satan's topmost minions. Even high, I'm pretty sure Cas knew what he was doing there. If the self-destructive streak runs as true as the broken heart, then why not the rest of him?

Castiel is also not obligated to be Winchester-centric and I think all of us who are above the age of fourteen can agree that Cas experiencing relationships, friendships, small associations, and acquaintances with other people is a wicked good thing. But we kind of want an explanation for how it is that Cas has lost his deep fire when it comes to Dean. Weirdly, for any interpersonal relationship, it seemed to start out aggressively like an arranged partnership, and then toppled directly into hopeless devotion and true fucking love. When Anna asks in 04.16, "The father you love. You think he wants this? You think he’d ask this of you? You think this is righteous?" Anna is asking Cas if he thinks their father would truly command Cas to mentally maim the Righteous Man, Dean, whom he's so suddenly sunk devotion into. If you disagree that Cas loves Dean at this point, in some way, then check out [the exact words](http://supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=4.16_On_the_Head_of_a_Pin_\(transcript\)) Anna uses in 04.16. And then remember that two episodes later, Cas carefully defies orders to help Dean save his brother. ("Just so you know—" sly eyes "why I can’t help"; the lines from [04.18](http://supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=4.18_The_Monster_at_the_End_of_This_Book) that  _absolutely cement the 'ship_.) And just re-read Anna's language there, seriously. "You think he'd ask this of you?" Not, "you think he'd ask this of  _ **Dean**?_ " but of you, Castiel. To watch someone you admire, possibly love, go through with this when he's expressed so clearly that he's sure giving into it will break or hurt him in some way. And Anna's standing there confirming that Dean, as a weapon, will be wasted by this descent: "Stop him, Cas, please. Before you ruin the one real weapon you have." Only when that doesn't work does she change tack and say, look, Cas, this order is falling on YOU, here. You're the one standing outside the room making sure Dean does his duty. Micromanaging Zach isn't here, not even hardass Uriel insisted on staying. So whatever happens to this guy you like, you can't pass it off down the chain of command even if Uriel is in charge of your leash right now.

What I'm saying is, Castiel's feeling for Dean already ran so deep, whatever that feeling may be defined as (devotion, love, interest, whatever), that Anna was already using it to drive home her message to Cas. Using HIS feelings as a vehicle, no less! Not one mention of her own feelings for Dean even though [she's the one who slept with him](http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=4.10_Heaven_and_Hell) (AFTER she knew she was a semi-detached, mission-oriented angel!).

Another mystery of feeling: It's just two episodes later, when Cas is letting Dean in on the prophet-archangel connection trick. Right after Cas watched, in 04.16, standing there bleeding and amazed, as Sam simply raised a hand and juiced Alastair for info and just as easily, almost gleefully, twisted and burned the very being right out of existence.

Somewhere in there, Cas decided that it was important to protect Sam, too. Even after he saw Sam pull out the psychic demon-killing moves that were supposedly so wrong in the eyes of heaven. Was this Dean's influence or, standing there, watching what Sam did to Alastair, did this demon-blood-influenced act somehow inspire admiration or devotion in Castiel? Or is it JUST.

ONLY.

Dean's NEED to protect Sam that Cas is honoring?

I'd rather it be that Cas likes Sam for Sam's sake, just like Cas likes Dean for Dean's sake. I do not subscribe to the theory that Sam is an accessory and I don't like the idea that Cas only tries to protect Sam or make Sam happy because a happy, healthy Sam makes Dean happy. Being a part of a package deal is like a nice bonus. I think Cas likes Sam for Sam and I don't know that it was any one event that led to it, I just know that Cas stood there in awe and probably a little afraid of Sam as he killed this major-league demon. And then, what, a few weeks later? Gets in on a scheme to save Sam from himself (and his idea that he can go up against Lilith alone in 04.18).

Here's another thing I wonder about: How often Cas remembers the Dean who said, small and broken, like a child, "I can't do it, it's too big." I wonder how close Cas had been watching that he was able to show up before Dean started beating Chuck up in 04.18 and an archangel showed to defend the prophet. Hmmm.

Here's yet another thing I wonder about: I wonder if, after [08.17](http://supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=8.17_Goodbye_Stranger), Cas had flashbacks to the events after Alastair’s death. When Uriel had Cas on his knees and was beating him. When this person he loved was ravaging him. And all the time there was this woman in the background with murderous intentions. I hardly ever think about Naomi because I didn't buy her last-minute redemptive shit or the notion that she had the greater good at heart. I think she was a machine still functioning on an obsolete program. Anna was quite the opposite. But now I wonder how much Anna and Naomi have in common. Of course, that would necessitate thinking about Anna and Naomi and I'm probably already in trouble for pointing out that women seem to creep up behind Cas with knives  _a whole lot_.

Here's _another_ thing I wonder about: What did Cas mean by, "For the first time in a long time I am [unafraid]"? Probably that he’s been fearful ever since he heard that the first seal was being broken. Fearful like any other marching-orders-motherfucker that, here we go, off to war, and the the end result to war is always Win or Lose and what if we Lose this time? And what Uriel and others like him (Zach, Michael, Raphael, arguably Joshua and like most the others) want is for angels to accept the apocalypse and drive the Winchesters towards it. Other angels in Castiel's garrison had already agreed with Uriel's proposal. Would Cas's reaction have been different if it had come from another member of his garrison (someone who didn't commit the murders but agreed with Uriel)? Or was Anna's position in opposing it, along with being Castiel's former superior, already standing in negative to that?

Finally, I have to stack on top of "[Christo!](http://supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=1.04_Phantom_Traveler)" and all the other things we never use again, that send-an-angel-back-to-heaven spell Alastair used in [04.10](http://supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=4.10_Heaven_and_Hell) and 04.16. "Well, like roaches, you celestials. Now, I really wish I knew how to kill you. But all I can do is send you back to heaven."

Ummmm. Can we revisit that? Can somebody please spontaneously remember this, look up Alastair's spell, and use it to send the angels back to heaven to kick the Metatron out from the inside? WE KINDA NEED ONE OF THOSE THIS SEASON. Or maybe Crowley, having been one of the higher-up demons, will be privy to the spell and all the Winchesters have to do is ask him the right set of words.

"SAY, CROWLEY! Do you know anything that sends angels back to heaven without killing them? HMMMMM???"


End file.
